Thursday Pools in Fortville is looking to expand to the east.
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FORTVILLE — Filled to the brim at its current space as sales flood in, a pool manufacturer looks to overflow operations onto neighboring land.
Thursday Pools has plans to expand its facility and outdoor storage to the east of its location at 840 Commerce Parkway. The company is also asking Fortville officials to annex its new land into town and grant tax breaks for the building addition and equipment that will be used inside.
At almost 80 acres, the parcel directly east of Thursday Pools’ existing operation is made up mostly of an undeveloped field and some woods. The company wants to extend its existing facility onto the site with a new building of about 100,000 square feet. It would have the same type of facade treatment as the rest of the building and much of the new structure’s roof would be covered in solar panels to provide energy savings.
The area around the addition would be made up of asphalt and stone surfaces for outdoor storage of the fiberglass in-ground swimming pools the company makes.
Thursday Pools has expanded several times since starting in 2010. Co-owner and chief financial officer Bill Khamis said he had to do some soul searching before settling on the latest addition.
“Sometimes you don’t want to go out to grow just to grow,” he told Fortville Town Council members last week. “But the business has been very fortunate.”
Despite having no on-the-road sales employees, customers continue to pour in, he added.
“We invested everything in the quality of the product, and they’re just flooding us,” Khamis said.
He said the business could make do in its current space.
“Probably so, if we just wanted to count profit at the end of the day,” he said, before directing his thoughts to his employees. “But if you want absolute efficiency, you want absolute safety, you want the absolute best working environment for them, they need more room. That’s all there simply is to it.”
Upon annexation, Thursday Pools seeks a zoning designation of light industrial for 28 acres of the property on which the business is planned to expand. Khamis is asking for a residential zoning designation for the remaining acreage, where he’s mulling plans for one to three custom homes and a horse stable. Allowing horses on the property would require approval from the town’s board of zoning appeals.
Town council members voted unanimously to approve the annexation and zoning on the first of two readings. The Fortville Plan Commission is slated to consider a zoning recommendation to the council for the property later this month. The town council will then hold a second and final vote on the annexation and zoning.
Town boards are now meeting at the Fortville Community Center, 400 E. Church St., as preparations for Town Hall’s renovations get underway.
Fritz Fentz, town council president, said Khamis is a good steward to Fortville.
“He does what he says he’s going to do, and he does it to the nines,” Fentz said. “He’s always done a quality job.”
After speaking with residents in the area, Thursday Pools is proposing several commitments regarding the expansion as well. While a new entry is planned off County Road 1050N, it would be for emergency vehicles only and the business’ truck route would remain the same. The grounds’ current outdoor storage screening of wood fencing and masonry columns would extend to the new area. An earthen mound with landscaping would go up along County Road 1050N, buffering the Wyndstone neighborhood to the north.
Thursday Pools is requesting a tax abatement for the expansion and new equipment that will go inside. Paperwork filed with the town states the details are still being determined, but that an investment of $2.5 million to $3.5 million is estimated for equipment like a crane system and molds.
The company uses large molds to craft the different models of pools in its inventory.
The tax abatement paperwork also anticipates 10 new jobs stemming from the expansion, adding to the company’s estimated total of 100.
Because the business is located in a tax increment financing district the Fortville Redevelopment Commission oversees, that group will consider the tax abatement before the council, and is slated to do so on Thursday.
